A Tactical Platform for the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

Draft Resolutions for the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

Armed Uprising

(1)thewhole history of the present democratic revolution in Russia shows us
    that, on the whole, the movement is steadily rising towards ever more
    determined, offensive forms of struggle against the autocracy, forms that
    are assuming an increasingly mass character and are embracing the whole
    country;

(2)thepolitical strike in October, which swept away the Bulygin Duma,
    compelled the autocratic government to proclaim the principles of political
    liberty and revealed thegigantic strength of the proletariat and its ability to take unanimous action on
      a country-wide scale, in spite of all the deficiencies of its class
      organisations;

(3)withthe further growth of the movement, the peaceful general strike proved
    inadequate, while partial recourse to it failed its aim and disorganised the
    forces of the proletariat;

(4)theentire revolutionary movement led with elemental force to the armed
    uprising in December, when not only the proletariat but new forces of the
    urban poor and the peasantry took up arms to defend the liberties gained by
    the people from the encroachments of the reactionary government;

(5)theDecember uprising gave rise to new barricade tactics, and proved
    generally that the open armed struggle of the people is possible even
    against modern troops;

(6)owingto the introduction of a military and police dictatorship,
despite constitutional promises, the masses of the people are becoming
increasingly conscious of the necessity of fighting for real power, which the
revolutionary people can capture only in open battle against the forces of the
autocracy;

(7)theautocracy is weakening and demoralising its military forces by
    employing them to suppress by force of arms the very people of whom they are
    a part, by not carrying out the now urgent military reforms that all honest
    elements in the army are demanding, by not taking steps to relieve the
    desperate conditions of the reservists, and by responding to the demands of
    the soldiers and sailors only by tightening police and barrack-room
    seventies;

Weare of the opinion, and propose that the Congress should agree:

(1)thatat the present time armed uprising is not only the necessary means of
fighting for freedom, but a stage actually reached by the movement, a step
which, in view of the growth and intensification of a new political crisis,
begins the transition from defensive to offensive forms of armed struggle;

(2)thatin the present stage of the movement, the general political strike must
    be regarded not so much as an independent means of struggle as an auxiliary
    means in relation to insurrection; that therefore the timing of such a
    strike, and the choice of its place and of the industries it is to involve
    shouldpreferably depend upon the time and circumstances of the main form of struggle,
namely, armed uprising;

(3)thatin its work of propaganda and agitation the Party must
    take special care to study the practical experience of the December
    uprising, examine it critically from the military point of view, and draw
    practical lessons from it for the future;

(4)thatstill greater efforts must be made to form more fighting squads,
    improve their organisation, and supply them with weapons of every type; and,
    as experience suggests, it is necessary to form not only Party fighting
    squads, but also squads associated with the Party, and entirely non-Party
    squads;

(5)thatthere should be increased work among the armed forces, bearing in mind
    that discontent alone in the forces is not enough to achieve success for the
    movement, that there is also a need for direct agreement with the organised
    revolutionary-democratic elements in the armed forces, for the purpose of
    launching determined offensive operations against the government;

(6)thatin view of the growing peasant movement, which may flare up into a
    regular insurrection in the very near future, it is desirable to work for
    combining actions by the workers and the peasants, in order to organise, as
    far as possible, joint and simultaneous fighting operations.